1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the switching of data and more particularly to the manner of dynamically computing a schedule defining a sequence of connections between a set of ingress ports and a set of egress ports.
2. Related Art
One of the problems that may be encountered in data switching is the blocking of data transfers because the data transfer path is already in use. In other words, while a first port is transferring data to a second port, the second port cannot receive data from any other source until control of the port is relinquished. This may significantly impact the latency of the data transfers.
This problem is typically addressed through the use of a non-blocking static data link. Conventionally, such data links operate by scheduling data transfers through the links based on statistical models of the data traffic which is expected to be transferred through the links. By planning for the expected traffic and scheduling transfers accordingly, these systems attempt to minimize blocking.
One of the disadvantages of these conventional systems is that they are based on static models of the data traffic. If the actual traffic varies from the anticipated scenario, the systems cannot adapt to the new behavior. While the statistical model upon which the scheduling of the data is based may be ideal for certain cases, it will likely be far from ideal in other cases. The performance of the systems may suffer as a result.